There’s a big difference between Vito DiMartino and the multi-use sports facility he was instrumental in establishing on the grounds of A.N. Myer Secondary School.

The four combination basketball and tennis courts at the Phil Mazzone Sports Complex are all clearly marked. You can easily tell when a ball remains in play or bounces out-of-bounds stopping the action.

Throughout his 32-year teaching career the line separating what was labour and what was a labour of love to the longtime Niagara Falls resident’s life was forever blurred, always the betterment of the community

Instead of calling it a day after the final bell sounded in 11 years teaching physical education at E.L. Crossley, 11 at Stamford and 10 at Myer, he would volunteer his time to coach high school teams as well as teams in the community. Over the years, always in his free time and on his own dime, he inspired thousands of young men and women to become better players, better teammates and, above all, better people.

DiMartino, winner of this year’s Doug Austin Award as Niagara Falls sportsperson of the year, got into teaching and, almost simultaneously, coaching because the last thing he wanted was a “mundane job.

“I worked at a chicken plant in Niagara Falls for one summer and it so monotonous, repetitive,” recalled the native of Rome, Italy, who was two when his family emigrated to Canada and settled in Niagara Falls.

“I said to myself, ‘I’m going to school.’”

In 1980 DiMartino graduated from teachers college at the University of Toronto after four years at McMaster University. He worked at a YMCA in St. Catharines for a year and ran the racquetball and tennis facilities at Bridgewater in Niagara Falls before teaching fulltime.

DiMartino was inspired to return to the classroom after graduating from Stamford Collegiate, Class of 61, by an all-star lineup of role models.

“I was highly influenced by the phys ed teachers who were around me at the time – Bob Coull, Doug Aitchison, Tim Ajack, Terry Nelson – all those guys had a huge influence on me,” he said. “I liked what they were doing with their own lives, and the contributions they were making.”

Working as a counsellor at Olympia Sports Camp in Huntsville reinforced the decision that a career in teaching would be especially satisfying.

“It was kind of nice,” DiMarttino recalled. “You felt good at the end of the day, you did something meaningful and you felt you contributed, either to someone’s own growth or to your own.”

As was the case with coaching high school teams and at the community level, nine years of hard work raising $350,000 to turn an under-utilized strip of land along Huggins Street into the Phil Mazzone Sports Complex was also undertaken with no expectation of remuneration.

He said seeing people of all ages battling preventable disease by being active instead of succumbing to them by languishing on the couch is payment enough.

“I spent a lifetime promoting physical fitness through my career,” DiMartino said. “One of the pitches I would do, if I had an opportunity to speak to a service club, ‘Let’s get kids physically active.’

“Doctors are telling us the instances of preventable diabetes are off the charts.”

He said getting people to appreciate physical fitness starts with good facilities that people want to use.

Even before he began teaching at Myer, DiMartino would drive by the green space separating the high school from Huggins Street.

“It was basically just there, and I thought couldn’t we make a better use of it.”

The sports complex fundraising committee included Bart Maves – “My right-hand man, he helped me get this completed,” DiMartino said. – as well as former Niagara Falls resident David Nowak, a lawyer now working for Brookfield Management in Toronto.

“Phil was one of his mentors, and he wanted to do something for him,” DiMartino said in praising Nowak’s role on the committee.

“Something in the neighbourhood of $100,000 came our way in Phil’s name.”

The project was able to secure a “hefty donation” from the City of Niagara Falls after the school board decided to waive user fees for the facility and that it would be open to the public after school hours.

Also chipping into a facility that is open to the public free of charge after school hours and on weekends were the Toronto Raptors. They contributed $25,000 for court-naming rights.

“The Raptors had a foundation devoted to court builds,” DiMartino said. “We were a perfect fit for them.”

Dominec Dillelo, the owner of Centennial Construction, made “in-kind contributions” to the project donating equipment for the excavation and levelling.

“He did all that, and the labour, for free,” DiMartino said.

Dillelo was told he could keep the soil from the excavation but after selling it, he donated all of the money to the fundraising campaign.

Mike Rao, DiMartino’s former coaching adversary at Notre Dame College School in Welland, said The Review would have been hard-pressed to select a more deserving recipient of an award honouring Doug Austin, the newspaper’s longtime sports editor.

“Truly, one of the finest gentlemen in the game,” Rao said. “You can’t say that about me, but I would say that about him.

“He’s gracious when he wins and he’s humble. In a loss, when he loses a tough one, there’s just no animosity.

Rao, who coached “hundreds of games” against DiMartino, said his friend never let a result on the court “haunt him.”

“I don’t think he ever took a loss home with him,” Rao said. “He enjoyed the competition, but he never let it define him. It’s not who he is.”

That DiMartino was being rewarded for giving back didn’t surprise Rao in the least.

“He’s always given back,” Rao said. “Don’t forget, we coach for free, we don’t get paid.

“Vito’s been doing that for 30 years. He’s still giving back, at every level.”

“What can you say about a guy whose whole career has basically been about volunteering, helping young kids.”

DiMartino was also the founder and chair of the Stamford Collegiate Fitness Centre which raised $250,000 to enhance fitness and wellness for students and athletes at his alma mater.

Since DiMartino is only 61 years young, and far younger at heart, this year’s Doug Austin Award winner as the top sportsperson in Niagara Falls can in no way be considered a lifetime achievement honour.

Even in retirement DiMartino continues to coach and volunteer, paying it forward by paying back a debt of gratitude that has been repaid many times over.

“It’s easy to look a long way when you are able to stand on the shoulders of giants,” he said in accepting the award.

The 37th annual City of Niagara Falls Volunteer Recognition Evening also praised the contributions of the following in the sports community:

Volunteer Award: David Good, a black belt and instructor at The Martial Arts Centre. In addition to teaching classes twice a week and prepare students for belt certification, Good helps in conducting repairs and maintaining the facility.

Volunteer Award: Milissa Ritchie was nominated by the Greater Niagara Baseball Association ladies auxiliary for continuing to donate her time and talent six years after her son stopped playing minor baseball.

Volunteer Award: Mike Wolfe, nominated by the Sports Wall of Fame committee, spent the past nine years chairing the City of Niagara Falls recreation and culture committee.

George MacPhail Award: Bob Pysher, in recognition off 20 years with the Greater Niagara Baseball Association. He began a seven-year stint as the association president after starting out as a house league convener. Two years ago Pysher returned to the executive as vice-president and looks after Niagara Falls teams in the Central Ontario Baseball Association as well as purchasing.